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Olympics-The India Story

Page 40

by Boria Majumdar


  But this was a day primarily for the Tibetans. As hundreds of specially deployed policemen watched from the sidelines and scores of reporters took notes, the entire panoply of anti-Chinese dissent was on display in a tent city that had come up virtually overnight on one of the side lanes leading up to Jantar Mantar. The centre-piece was a day-long funeral service for those who died at the hands of the Chinese, conducted by monks specially brought into Delhi for the occasion. As their chants and gongs filled the air, we could see a whole range of stalls—representatives of the banned Falung Gong, photographs of those dead and missing and pictures of torture and death at the hands of Chinese troops. This was where the bulk of the protest groups took up residence for most of the afternoon, once the 4 km distance from Rajghat had been covered, for a day-long ritual of songs, chants and slogans. With hundreds of local students joining hands, Jantar Mantar was turned into a mini-Tibet, the adjoining alleyways and streets leading up to Janpath Road and Connaught Place now chock-a-block with activists sporting ‘Free Tibet’ T-shirts and head bands. Their one-point demand: China must open its doors to envoys of the Dalai Lama.

  By early afternoon, when the Tibetans resumed their peaceful march after a gap of almost three hours, the scene of action shifted to the stretch between Raisina Hill and India Gate, the venue for the official Olympic torch relay. This was when the cost of the protest to the ordinary commuter came home to us most forcefully. The five-minute drive from Jantar Mantar to India Gate turned into a 90 minute walk with the police having closed all access roads and all vehicular traffic. As we pleaded with the first police access point on Copernicus Road, we could hear the desperate pleas of a middle-aged man whose mother-in-law had suffered an accident at Safdarjang but who was stuck on this side of town with the police clampdown. ‘What do I do?’ he pleaded, ‘how do I get there? Will you let me through?’ The policemen were sympathetic but their orders were clear. These roads were off-limits. ‘Try another route,’ was the advice to the distraught man. As for us, we were by now late for the function, after having taken numerous diversions to reach the venue. Despite possessing all the necessary invites and IOA advisories, the policemen on duty had the same answer: ‘Sorry, the road is now closed.’ So we put on our most humble faces, protested about being academics writing on the torch relay and dropped a thousand names before the wall of resistance reluctantly melted. We could still hear the man with the injured mother-in-law arguing his case with another group of policemen as we entered. We were on foot; with his car, he had no chance. A policeman was explaining a long circuitous alternative route to him as we crossed the barricade.

  Even on foot, only a handful of select invitees were allowed to line up along the relay route stretching for 2.7 km and manned by 3000 plus security personnel. As the sponsors’ cheering groups performed their customary song and dance numbers without an audience, their act seemed superficial in comparison to the intensity of the protests in the morning. Declared Randhir Singh, Secretary General of the IOA:

  We have done everything possible to ensure the torch relay goes through peacefully. We did not intend it to be a closed one but there isn’t much we could do. We would have loved the public to come and be part of this historic occasion in keeping with established Olympic tradition. But the situation is such that one blemish might lead to violence. Our national pride and international standing was at stake.3

  And so it was. At exactly 4.40 p.m. Kunjarani Devi, India’s legendary weightlifter, kickstarted the carefully orchestrated flame relay. As the official run began, the tension in the air was palpable. The IOA and the government were determined to get through the day’s events as soon as possible. Within 50 minutes the flame had travelled the distance from Raisina Hill to India Gate, escorted by Chinese minders. Finally, when Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lit the cauldron, Suresh Kalmadi, President of the IOA, looked justly relieved.

  As the troubled flame left Indian shores for Bangkok and then on to Canberra, Osaka and Seoul, we could not help but comment on the way in which the Olympic movement champions sport as a medium for inter-cultural communication and peaceful democratic exchange. In fact, it could be successfully argued following the Delhi leg of the international torch relay that the Olympic ideology promoted by the IOC since its creation is no longer founded on the unity of sport and culture alone, as extolled by De Coubertin at the beginning of the twentieth century: it has taken on a third dimension, of concern for human rights. This development is not only a sign of the times, but also a positive legacy of the modern Olympic Games.

  Index

  Aaj Tak, 211–213

  Abdullah, Farooq, 302

  Adibasi Sabha, 62

  advertising, 177–181, 198–206

  Afghanistan, 35, 91, 104, 113, 154, 159, 116

  Aga Khan Tournament, Bombay, 54

  Agassi, Andre, 278, 293

  Air Defence Missile Regiment, 265

  Air India, 189, 221

  Aiyar, Mani Shankar, 228

  Ali, Mushtaq, 71–72

  Aligarh University, 64

  All India Council of Sports, 184

  All India Football Association (AIFA), 33, 40, 73, 254

  All India Radio (AIR), 89, 181, 189, 197–198, 200, 231, 278

  Allen, R.J., 66

  Amarnath, Lala, 71, 260

  Amateur Athletic Federation of India (AAFI), 158

  Ambedkar, B.R., 6

  Amin, Narhari, 302

  Amrit Kaur, Rajkumari of Kapurthala, 165

  Amstelveen, Holland (2005), 129

  Amsterdam Games (1928), 10, 27, 56

  India vs Austria, 59

  India vs Belgium, 59

  India won hockey gold, 10, 23, 38, 70

  Anand, R.L., 123

  Anglo Indians, 57, 61, 102

  Ansari, M.A., 149

  Antulay, A.R., 124

  Antwerp Games, 15, 27

  Appu on INSAT: transformation of Indian television, 201–202

  Archery Federation, 301

  army

  and sport in independent India, 245–252

  and the decline of sport (1989–2008), 265–267

  Army Sport Institute (ASI), 270

  Army Sports Control Board (ASCB), 55, 73, 250–256

  Army Supply Corps (ASC), 265

  Artificial Turf, 131–133

  Ashok Yatri Niwas, 191

  Asia-Africa Bandung Conference (1955), 172

  Asiad Village, menu for, 194–196

  Asian Athletic Championship, 158

  Asian Games, 210, 218, 276, 292

  Bangkok (1970), 51, 288

  Delhi (1951), 46, 147–148

  Delhi (1982), 137, 151ff, 189–194

  Jakarta (1962), 128, 143–147, 159, 161, 185

  Manila (1954), 159

  Seoul (1986), 225

  Teheran (1974), 134–135

  Tokyo (1956/58), 162

  and the idiot box, 170–178

  Special Organising Committee (AGSOC), 188–189

  Asian Games Federation (AGF), 155–170

  Asian Relations Conference, Delhi (1947), 135–136, 142–143, 156, 158, 160, 167

  Asian Relations Organization, 157, 160, 166

  Astro Turf and the North-South divide, 130–142

  Athens, 244, 267, 269

  athleticism, 13–14

  Athletics Federation, 275, 301

  Atlanta (1996), 276, 278, 292–294, 311

  Ayyangar, Gopalaswamy, 258

  Azad, Maulana, 258

  Azharuddin, Mohammad, 297

  Aziz, 100

  Azlan Shah hockey tournament, 299

  Babar, Ilyas, 288

  Babu, Digvijay Singh, 109, 301

  Babu, K.D. Singh, 102, 260–261

  Bachchan, Amitabh, 196

  Bagga, Aslam, 71

  Bakht, Sikandar, 138, 140

  Ballygunge Cricket Clubs, 253

  Baloo, Palwankar, 77

  Bannerjee, Ananya, 203

  Bannerjee, P.K., 260

 
; Baoqing, Sun, 151

  Barcelona, 311

  Baroda, Maharani of, 93

  Barooah, Debakant, 184

  Basketball, 35, 259

  Beighton Cup, Calcutta, 54

  Beijing Games (2008), 296

  Bekov, Roshind Mahmed, 279

  Bengal

  vs Indian Olympic Association (IOA), 40–42

  dominance over football, 40

  dominance over soccer, 145

  identity and self-assertion, 217

  Bengal Amateur Swimming Association, 41

  Bengal Hockey Association (BHA), 44

  Bengal Hockey Federation, 43

  Bengal Olympic Association (BOA), 41

  Benson and Hedges Champion of Champions Trophy, Australia (1985), 226

  Berlin Olympics (1936), 86, 95

  failure in other sports, 76, 89–92

  India vs. France, hockey, 94

  India vs. Germany, hockey, 113

  India vs. Hungary, hockey, 77, 87

  India vs. Japan, hockey, 93

  India vs. US, hockey, 67

  Betancourt, Lazaro, 286

  Bhagwat, Anjali, 273

  Bhakra Canal, 98

  Bhalindra Singh, Raja, 47, 134, 137, 139, 142, 144, 183, 185

  Bhalla, G.P., 89

  Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), 187, 212, 297, 301, 305

  Bhaskaran, Vasudevan, 125

  Bhoot, Sohrab H., 45–48

  Bhopal, Nawab of, 64, 71

  Bhupathi, Mahesh, 296, 316

  Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, 27–28

  Bihar Cricket Association, 302

  Billing, Amar Singh, 50

  Bindra, Abhinav, 273, 276

  Biondi, Matt, 309

  Blatter, Sepp, 196

  Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), 162–163, 215, 218, 231, 277

  Bokhari, Lal Shah, 63, 65, 71

  Bollywood, sports and, 241–242

  Bombay, dominance over cricket, 34, 54

  Bombay High School Athletic Association, 12

  Bombay Olympic Association, 96

  Bombay Pentangular tournament, 220

  Bonino, 282

  Border Security Force (BSF), 189

  Bose, Dilip, 260

  Bose, Subhash Chandra, 74, 217

  Boxing, 90, 221, 259, 296

  Boys Sports Companies, 271

  Brasher, Christopher, 283

  Brewin, 79

  Brijnath, Rohit, 229, 292, 297

  British East York Regiment, 74, 217

  British Empire Games Canada (1930), 11

  Sydney (1938), 45

  British Football Association, 252–253

  British imperialism, 97, 160

  British Indian Army, 250–251, 253, 263

  British Isles, 10, 100

  Brown, Elwood S., 21, 152

  Brown, Judy, 290

  Brundage, Avery, 49, 87, 174, 176

  Brussels (1949), 46

  Buck, H.C., 19, 22

  Buniyaad, 205

  Burdwan, Maharaja of, 25, 27

  bureaucracy, 192, 197–198. See also politics

  Burma, 22, 29, 159–160, 168

  Bysack, N.C., 46

  Calcutta Football League, 255

  Canners, Norman, 87

  capitalism, 88, 181, 237, 244

  Cariappa, General K.M., 163, 165

  Carr, Richard John, 71

  Carvalho, Joaquim, 214

  Cathedral School, 12

  Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), 189

  Ceylon (Sri Lanka), 22, 29, 35, 65, 152, 154, 159–160, 166

  Chacko, Molly, 292

  Chak De India (2007), 127, 223, 289

  Chamberlain, Neville, 88

  Chanakya, 206

  Chanda Committee Report (1966), 199

  Chandra, Sandhya, 260

  Charanjit Rai, 117, 334

  Charlsweworth, Ric, 298

  Chatterjee, A.C., 106

  Chatterjee, S.K., 260

  Chautala, Ajay, 301

  China, 121, 128, 148, 150–151, 153, 159–160, 168–170

  notions of honour and self-respect, 153

  Chistyakov, Valentine, 286

  Chopra, Yash, 147

  Church Imperial Club, 57

  Churchill, Winston, 161

  Coubertin, Pierre De, 20–21, 31, 33, 35–36, 148, 152, 154–155, 317

  Cohen, Stephen, 261

  Cojecaru, Cristina, 274, 291

  Cold War, 170

  collectivity, 181, 227, 243

  colonialism, 11, 99, 108

  commercialism, 5, 218

  Commonwealth Games

  Cardiff (1958), 162, 285

  Delhi (2010), 317

  communal riots, Bombay (1932), 64–65

  communalisation and politicisation of sport, 100

  Congress Party, 88

  Congress Working Committee (CWC), 149

  consumer economy, consumerism, 178, 181, 207, 209, 228, 297

  Cornacchia, Giovanni, 286

  corruption, 301

  cricket, 6–7, 10, 12–13, 25–26, 30, 32–34, 72, 127, 220, 225

  Ashes (England and Australia series), 85, 212

  Indian-ness and television, 223

  television and globalization in India, 210

  Twenty-Twenty Cricket World Cup, South Africa (2007), 211

  Cricket World Cup

  England (1983), 243

  India (1999), India vs. Pakistan, 120

  South Africa, (2003), 211

  West Indies (2007), 176

  Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), 231

  Cricket Club of India, 163

  Cullen, E.J.C., 79

  cultural practices, 6

  cycling, 33, 45–46

  Cycling Federation of India, 46, 51

  Czechoslovakia, 91, 103, 107, 289

  Dalai Lama, 313, 315, 318

  Dara, A.I.S., 83, 93, 96, 100

  Das, C.R., 149

  Das, Sajani Kanta, 74, 217

  Dasmunshi, Priyaranjan, 301

  Datt, Keshav, 260

  Datta, K., 123–125

  Davenport, 286

  Davidson, Bob, 123

  Davis Cup, 292–293

  Davis, Otis, 283

  Dayanand, M., 123, 137

  de Mello, Anthony S., 156, 161–163, 210, 218, 248

  Deccan Gymkhana, 14–17

  Defence Deposit Certificates, 260

  Delhi Development Authority (DDA), 188

  Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), 189

  Deo, K.P. Singh, 301

  derby, 140

  Desai, Morarji, 140

  Deshmukh, G.V. 61

  Deutsch Hockey Bund, 95

  Dhoni, Mahender Singh, 214

  Dhyan Chand, 94–97, 100, 102, 111–113, 249–251, 263

  Delhi dilemma, 76–77

  and Indian nationalism in the Third Reich, 76

  Diem, Dr., 81

  diving, 155

  Doctor, Behram, 79, 96

  Doordarshan (DD), 179–181, 189, 197, 200–207, 223, 231–232, 234–235

  technical backwardness, 201

  Dorabji Tata Trust, 320

  Drapeau, 132

  Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), 130

  Dravidian movement, 130

  Duke of Edinburgh, 282

  Duke of Wellington, 263

  Duriez, Marcel, 286

  Dutch East Indies, 155, 180

  Dutt, Sunil, 301

  ESPN, 230, 232, 234–235

  ESPN-STAR, 229, 234–235

  Eaves, Kendrick, 120

  economic dimension to news channels, 213

  economic reforms, 200, 215, 223

  Emergency (1975–77), 185–187, 199–200, 210

  Empire and Commonwealth Games, 162, 260

  English education, 13

  Enterprise, 10–12, 148, 205, 269

  Enterprise Nexus Lowe, 228

  entertainment programming, 205, 240

  Evers, Georg, 95

  factional
fights, 36

  Far-Eastern Asian Championship Games (FECG), 151

  fascism, 88

  Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA), 36–39

  Fernandes, George, 297

  Festival of India, UK, 182

  FIFA, 196, 218

  financial crisis, 69, 109, 128, 169

  Flint, Debbie, 290

  Folkstone Easter Festival, 58

  Football Association of England, 255–257

  Football Federation, 257

  football, 5, 28, 54, 185, 220, 235

  World Cup, 254

  Ford Foundation, 167

  Frank, Rene G., 102–104, 105, 111, 113–115, 118–119, 120–121

  Free Tibet movement, 266

  Freeman, Cathy, 265

  French Hockey Federation, 112

  Fyzee, A.H., 14

  Gaekwad of Baroda, 96

  Gal, Henrik, 284

  Games Ethic, 9–13, 260

  Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO), 150, 172

  and the fight for Asian leadership, 168–169

  Gandhi, Indira, 124, 178–182, 186, 194–198

  Gandhi, M.K., 157, 161, 241

  Gandhi, Rahul, 213

  Gandhi, Rajiv, 179, 181, 188, 195, 204, 207–208, 228

  Garder, Reese, 278

  Gassman, Kurt, 280

  Gately, 59

  Gautam, Mohanlal, 160

  Gavaskar, Sunil, 226

  Gentle, 114, 118

  German Hockey Association, 68

  German Hockey Federation, 69

  Germany Olympics (1932), 77

  Ghose, Bhaskar, 197, 202–203

  Ghosh, Nilima, 239

  Gill, K.P.S., 145

  Gill, S.S., 187, 207

  Glacken, 102

  global communication industry, 216

  global economic depression, 62

  global realpolitik, 150

  globalization in India, 211–222

  Goebbels, Joseph, 78, 80, 82

  Golden Olympic Order, 182

  Golf, 258

  Göring, Hermann, 82

  Gramsci, Antonio, 13

  Gray, J. Henry, 22, 29

  Great Depression, 76

  Great Revolt of 1857, 220

  Green, Milton, 87

  Gupta, Pankaj, 34, 42, 63, 67–68, 83, 102, 110, 111–112, 114–115

  Gupta, Shekhar, 223

  Gwalior Sports Association, 55

  Gymnastics, 258, 270

  Hafeez, Abdul, 73

  Hall, J.S., 19

  Hamid, 58

  Hamilton, Bruce, 104

  Hammond, 56

  Hanuman Vyayamprasarak Mandoli, Amroti, 90

  Haq, Moinul, 102

  Hari, Chetan Singh, 50

  Harris Shield Tournament, 12

 

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